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Pseudoscience Are Represented In The Film Prisoners Of Silence

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In the movie, ‘Prisoners of Silence’ (1993), profound examples of pseudoscience are represented. The presented findings look as if they are break-through studies, when the documentary is actually unscientific due to its own qualities to masking itself as empirically passing science. “Something has gone wrong in their developing brains.” Is an example of entertaining, but fallacious quotes meant to catch the attention of viewers. Disturbing and erroneous statements about people with a developmental disability such as, “they shun human contact”, “lacked expression”, “imaginative ability”, and “empathy” or “intelligent minds imprisoned in bad bodies” are overused and make up the majority of the video. These negative connotations the video …show more content…

Autism is described in a uniform way as opposed to being unique disorder for anyone diagnosed, hence the “Spectrum” in Autism Spectrum Disorder. According to studies, only “aproximately 40% of children with ASD do not talk (CDC, 2010)” (Hewitt. et al 2012). The documentary used personal anecdotes only to try to prove that facilitative communication was an advancement in autism studies. According to the CDC, it would not be an advancement for over half of the people studied. Accountable research studies also admit there is a lack of research in defining autism itself claiming, “There has been limited and conflicting evidence regarding the prevalence of adults diagnosed with ASD (Such information has been difficult to measure reliably because, (a) lack of access to support services often leaves adults with ASD underrepresented in the literature and underserved in their communities, and (b) many older adults currently served in the IDD system have a primary diagnosis of developmental disabilities (DD) and may not necessarily have an autism diagnosis even though they present with the symptoms. It is also likely that there is also a vast cohort of adults with ASD who are not receiving needed services. In addition, many individuals are deemed ineligible for IDD services because their IQ scores exceed the maximum allowable for ID diagnosis or due to failure to …show more content…

For example, the video showed and claimed their success by its use at only one elementary school, for children they thought to be retarded, not autistic. They evaded scrutiny of peer reviews by becoming popular in the news media. It was even admitted that there wasn’t any evidence the disabled people were using the machines and possible the facilitators or aids were doing it for

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